ROCKING THE COTS

Andy Newton reviews the betting and trends ahead of the Cotswold Chase

- Andy Newton

Happy New Year folks – I suspect this January issue might land with you before 2024 is over – but if it doesn’t then apologies for the repeated new year wishes. Anyway, we are into January – most people’s idea of the worst month on the calendar – unless, of course, you have a birthday or something else special to celebrate.

And, really, the same rule probably applies to the world of horse racing.

Yes, the first month of the year has never been one of the best for jumps racing fans and after the big Christmas meetings and Cheltenham still a few months away - it’s all a bit of a comedown as we welcome in the New Year.

That said, there is still the Cheltenham Trials Day meeting on Saturday, January 25– I’m still not sure why this fixture can’t be extended to another day to get more races in – but heyho, that’s for another day!

The Grade 1 Clarence House at Ascot is another of the big races this month, so I’m also going to cover that in his edition.

However, back to the Trials Day at Cheltenham and one of the main races on the card is the Cotswold Chase, which is often labelled as a Gold Cup trial.

But in recent years it’s only the 2000 winner Looks Like Trouble who has gone onto follow-up in the Gold Cup that same season.

Before that it was the Kim Bailey-trained Master Oats (1995) that used the Cotswold Chase to prepare for his Gold Cup success a few months later.

Therefore, with just the two Gold Cup winners coming out of this race (same season) in the last 29 renewals, then the winner will still have this trend to overcome if going onto run in the ‘big one’ at the Festival.

The 2023 winner Ahoy Senor fell late on in the Gold Cup, but it was unlikely to have won. While last year’s winner Capodanno ran in the Ryanair Chase (4th) instead.